Remembrances on the Precipice of Endings
by Ninja-band-aid
Summary: Ino goes on a trip, leaving Sakura behind. But it's her return which breeds the end. Ino x Sakura / Sakura x Sasuke. Relatively sad.


Soon…

"_I thought you were in love with me."_

"_I am!"_

"_Then what the Hell were you doing with him?"_

"_I-I was… we-"_

"_I thought you'd given up on him! I gave up on him for you! Because I thought you loved me more."_

"_I do love you more!"_

"_Then why can't you show it?"_

"…"

"_This is it, Sakura. I'm leaving. And I'm not coming back."_

"_Ino, wait-!"_

"_No. We're through."_

Now…

"I don't want to fight like this, Ino," sighed the pink haired girl, looking away. "I don't want to break up with you. It isn't what I was trying to get to."

"Clearly not," sniffed the other girl, tugging on her long yellow hair, "Clearly you were trying to _get_ _to_ his pants. Clearly you were trying to keep something on the side. So I'm not good enough, huh, Sakura? I'm not pretty enough? Not moody enough compared to that emo? I can't keep you happy in bed?"

"No!" Sakura interjected, "That's not it at all!"

"Then what is it? What does he have that I don't?"

She could not answer to that. Instead she shifted in her seat awkwardly, determinedly not looking at the livid girl in front of her. At her feet… at the table… at the floor… anywhere but at Ino's face. A face full of anger, and pain, and betrayal. And all aimed at the cause. Sakura couldn't stand being the source of her loved one's pain.

"Listen, Ino," she tried at the pause, looking up. Her girlfriend was pacing the room- the main room of their apartment. It was such a nice apartment. They'd decorated it together, when they moved in. Filled it with shelves of medical texts from Sakura's studies with Tsunde. Covered every surface with pots and vases full of flowers, fresh from Ino's family's shop. And everything was so bright. Plenty of pink- Sakura's favorite color- and plenty of blue- Ino's favorite. A place that reflected the both of them, together, mixing and mingling and making beautiful things as one. Not that they had meant for it to be so romantic originally.

They'd only been roommates then.

Before…

"Well here we are," Ino said in a whisper, looking around.

"Yep," Sakura agreed, "We are definitely here."

The two stood side-by-side, Ino with her hands on her hips and Sakura with them clasped behind her back, in the middle of a room. A room of blue and pink and brightness.

A room where they would one day argue, but where they, for now, agreed completely.

They were both spattered with paint, smudges of muck over their faces and messing up their hair. But in spite of their girlishness, neither seemed at all bothered. In fact, they were glad of the mess. It was proof of just how hard they had worked- and that was hard, indeed. They looked like the survivors of a particularly apocalyptic paintball war.

"What's your favorite part?" Ino murmured.

'_You.'_ "The curtains," Sakura said. She turned her head. "What's yours?"

'_You.' _"The flowers," Ino said.

Sakura nodded. "Of course. I'd be surprised if you'd said anything else."

'_You have no idea how surprised.'_ "Oh really? Ino laughed, "Am I that predictable?"

"Totally!" the girl confirmed, "You're little Miss 'Ooh, flowers! I love flowers! I love flowers and girly things and fad diets! But I also love Sasuke! Ooooh I loooove Sasuke! You think he wants some flowers? I'm gonna give him flowers! Oooh!"

"Hey!" Ino shouted, scowling, "I am NOT like that!"

"Oh you so are!" her friend cackled.

"Am not! That's YOU. You're like: 'Oh, I'm Sakura! I like pink. I like pink everything! I like it so much that I tell people it's my natural color!"

"It IS my natural color!" Sakura gasped, outraged. But Ino plowed right on.

"I totally wanna' dress my baby in pink- the baby I'm gonna' have with Sasuke! Oh, Sasuke, he's so hot. I bet he'd look good in pink!"

Sakura yelled. "That is NOT me!"

"Is so!"

"Is not!"

"Is soooo."

The two continued until their little fight downgraded into incoherent giggling and so many in-jokes that they seemed to be speaking their own language. When they were at last done and left gasping for breath on the couch, they decided to sleep right there. No baths. No beds. Just two best friends in their house, watching television and falling asleep where they dropped, still covered in paint.

Now…

Sakura stifled sniffles. She could feel her eyes tearing up, pricking painfully. She would rub at them, but that would only smear her makeup and make her look worse than she already did. And she did look pretty bad. Lipstick was already spread out over her mouth and on her cheek form where it had been led by sloppy kisses. Her foundation was half-off from sweat. In the harsh overhead lighting of the kitchen, she looked cheap and slutty. And it killed her.

She wanted to move for a tissue to wipe at her face and try and make things look a little better. But she couldn't move. She could not force her hand to move to the box on the table. It felt wrong to move. It felt wrong to even be worried about this, considering the other details.

Part of Sakura felt that she ought to just sit there and take every painful insult added to the injury. She deserved it. She'd been cheating. She'd been cheating and she'd gotten caught.

"…and with the boy that both of us agreed never to think of again, no less!" Ino was saying as Sakura fazed back into awareness of the lecture she was receiving. "God, Saki… I really thought that you meant it when you promised. I meant it."

"I meant it," Sakura murmured a moment too late, and with nothing to back her up.

"How could you have meant the promise when you were JUST breaking it?" Ino spat words of acid.

Sakura was left, yet again, with no answer. She shifted nervously in her seat, wringing her hands.

She remembered the promise. She remembered them both agreeing to it, sitting on what had once been her bed, but later became _their_ bed. She remembered holding hands, each looking into the other's eyes and nodding solemnly, murmuring "I swear". She had never intended to break the promise. They had hugged so tightly, sealing it, promising never to let anything or anybody come between them, ever again.

She even remembered what they'd been doing that morning.

Before…

"Are you excited we finally got the weekend without the boys, Sak?"

Sakura grinned, "Yep- but don't call me that!" She shoved her friend gently.

Ino caught herself with ease, pushing back playfully. "Why not?"

"Because it sounds like you're calling me 'Sock'!" she said, pulling a face.

"And…?" Ino shrugged.

"And it sounds like you're calling me a sock!" she insisted, pushing the girl again with both hands open. "I don't wanna be a sock!"

The pair strode down the road, right in the middle of downtown Konoha. One pink head and one blonde head bobbed through the crowd, making their way along at a calm pace.

"Psh, fiiiine," Ino said, looking up at the sky as if she were being very put-upon.

It really would be a wonderful weekend. Just the girls- and even then just the "cool" girls, TenTen and Hinata could go be dorks elsewhere- all alone while the boys went off doing some "male bonding" exercise that Guy-sensei had invented and dragged the other male instructors into. And since the girls had no equivalent plans, they were left to their own devices. Sakura and Ino's device involved home makeovers and a stay-home spa weekend just for them.

"It sounds like something that oaf Naruto would call you anyway."

"It does," Sakura agreed with a giggle, "But don't call him an oaf."

Ino raised a brow, looking at her companion. "Why not?" Without giving Sakura an opportunity to explain, she went on, eyes lighting up with teasing glee, "Do you liiiike him? Is he your booooyfriend?"

"No he isn't! You cut it out!" the victim cried, looking plainly aghast.

"Oh he so is!" Ino cackled, "You're in looove and you're going to go hook uuuup with him!"

"NO!"

"And then you're going to get it on like a nature program!" Ino made an obscene gesture involving her hips and an excellent imitation of a certain "so-and-so the Pelvis".

Sakura shrieked with horrified humor. "No, no, no!" she protested loudly, "He's just my teammate!"

"Then why so quick to defend him?" Ino said, punctuating with a kissy face and a smacking-lips sound.

That was when Sakura had an idea. A ninja had to know an enemy's weak point in order to fight back. And that weak point was often concealed within the attack.

Tsunde and Kakashi had both taught her well.

"Well if I like him so much then maybe you and your true love Choji can double-date with us," she said with a sly look.

The color drained from Ino's face. "EEWWW!" she squealed. "Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!"

Sakura threw her head back, laughing.

The horrified giggling took a bit of time to fade from the girls' lips, but it finally did, leaving a comfortable silence.

Ino glanced over and grinned. Sakura caught the look and grinned back. And then, for some reason, they reached over and linked hands. Neither asked why. Neither pulled back. It just felt… right. Like it was exactly what they were supposed to be doing.

They wouldn't know until so much later that this was the beginning.

Now…

The blonde rubbed at her temples. Impossible. This was just impossible. How could Sakura have done this? Done this to _her_? After how long they'd been together… after how hard they had worked for each other…

Ino couldn't decide if she wanted to scream or cry or both. She had never wanted to kick Sakura's ass as much as she did right there and then. Not even when they were kids fighting over Sasuke's affections.

Back then they had both been crushing on him. Best friend after the same boy. And they had hated each other for it. They would step on one another at every turn, just to get what they perceived as a leg up towards achieving the Uchiha boy. They would backstab and bitch and be horribly catty and just evil to one another. It was all for Sasuke. All for that stupid, womanizing, emotional loser. What had they been thinking?

What was Sakura still thinking?

Before…

'_That fucking bitch. I'm going to have to show her once and for all who Sasuke REALLY belongs to.'_

Sakura had no idea why Ino was glaring at her from across the other side of the field. What on earth had she done to her? Some stupid little slight?

'_She probably saw Sasuke sitting with me at lunch. She's just a jealous bitch. Well, I'll show her!_' She frowned and glared back.

They were just schoolchildren. Not even old enough to have teams. Not even old enough to be up for graduation yet, though certainly old enough to start worrying about it. However, graduation preparation was the furthest thing from the girls' minds as they waited on opposing ends of the schoolyard.

Each thought the other had a lesson to learn, and each was relishing the imminent opportunity to teach.

"Alright, kids! Everybody ready for our practical lesson?" asked Sensei Iruka, walking out into the middle of the assembled circle with a morning-coffee fueled, 'I love teaching!' grin. The grin faded as he was firmly ignored.

"I said-" he began again, cupping his hands to his mouth to project his voice, fingers forming into a sound jutsu, "EVERYBODY READY FOR OUR PRACTICAL LESSON?" The enhanced voice boomed thorough the field, making already spiked hair stand on end and causing much cringing and hands hastily clapped over ears in an effort to dull the yell. Even Sakura and Ino found it too loud to hear themselves think.

At least the chattering died down.

"Now that I have your attention, I'd like to go over today's lesson. Basically what this is about is two things:" he explained, holding up his first finger to indicate the initial point, "One, reading your opponent! A true ninja must know his or her opponent better than he or she knows his or her self. This means studying the person you are fighting and really getting into their head. And this cannot be achieved without…" he raised his second finger, "point Two, the elimination of all distractions! And what does this mean… Sasuke?"

All eyes in the class turned towards the called-upon boy. The dark eleven year old crossed his arms, slumping where he stood.

"It means that a ninja must totally ignore everything that is irrelevant to the fight if he wants to win," intoned the boy, sounding bored with the entire ordeal.

Every preteen girl in the area felt butterflies spring to life in their chests. Sakura and Ino glanced at each other and narrowed their eyes with acrimony upon catching the looks.

"Excellent, Mr. Uchiha!" praised Iruka, "That is exactly right. You have to ignore everything else if you want to focus on your enemy, which you must do if you intend to win!" He beamed at the class. "Now everybody, please pair up and then line up with your partner, and we can go one at a time with this exercise."

The class did as instructed, and both Ino and Sakura made direct beelines towards one another. Though usually they happily joined the queue of girls swarming Sasuke, today they had bones to pick.

Now…

They had beaten each other senseless that day. Both girls had been sent home black-and-blue, but only after Sensei Iruka had come in and forcibly pulled the two apart. Sakura escaped with a black eye and Ino's blood on her face. Ino received a fractured arm and a large chunk of Sakura's hair.

They looked back on it and laughed now. Well, not really now. Any time before _now_.

It only went to show that there had always been passion between them. Perhaps not the best of passions, but passions all the same. Passionate hate, but also passionate love. When they were together, they were _together_, never letting go of hands and waists and lips scarcely unlocking.

Ino almost smiled as she thought of it. _'And to think- we nearly reinvented 'PDA'.' _That idea had made her so proud until a few moments ago.

"We were always so close," Sakura mumbled to the countertop, mirroring Ino's thoughts and making the blonde look up sharply at her.

"No," she corrected, "No not always. And especially not now. Never again now."

Sakura flinched. "But… we were. We always loved each other. Even when we were-" she swallowed a painful lump in her throat, "very small."

Before…

"Hi!"

"…Hi."

"You're pretty!"

"…You think so?"

"Uh-huh! My name is Ino! What's yours?

"…Sakura."

Polite children imitating their parents, the two little girls reached out hands to shake; tiny, uncertain smiles spreading on their faces.

"What are you playing?" Ino asked, squatting down beside where Sakura knelt in the middle of a meadow, just a few yards away from the jungle gyms of the playground.

"Dolls." Sakura held up two small stuffed animals as her proof. A little pink rabbit and a little yellow bird, button eyes glinting and stitched mouths smiling.

"Can I play?" asked Ino, sitting down without waiting for an answer. But luckily, Sakura nodded, handing the bird to her new friend.

The two girls played quietly, making the little bird fly around and visit its bunny rabbit friend for invisible tea.

"Let's have them get married!" Ino suggested with a happy smile.

"They can't get married!" Sakura gasped, staring at the other child.

"Why not?"

"Because they're both lady animals!"

Ino blinked and shrugged. "So what?"

"So they can't get married!"

"…How come?" Ino questioned, wise beyond her years, "Why can't lady animals get married if they love each other?"

Sakura had to think on this one. She paused, mouth half-open, thinking. "I… I dunno'."

"Then let's have a wedding! A girls-only wedding; no boys allowed!" Ino seemed very pleased with the idea, and Sakura seemed to agree, grinning and nodding excitedly.

"Come on," Ino said, grabbing her friend's un-bunny-filled hand, "I'll show you how to make daisy chains for their wedding crowns!"

Now…

"I thought we were past this," Ino whispered for what felt like the thousandth time. "I thought you changed. I changed for you- isn't that enough?"

Sakura said nothing. Every word from her pink lips only further incriminated. "I changed," she maintained weakly.

"How?" Ino snapped, "What about you changed?" She hit the wall with the flat of her hands, making a slapping sound that made Sakura flinch as Ino adopted a standing push-up position. "I leave you alone at home once, _once_, for the first time since we'd been together, and this is what you do?" she said, staring at the kitchen wall, voice hovering between being a monotone and cracking with pain. The sound of her voice was almost as stinging to Sakura as her words.

"How long were you planning this?"

"It wasn't like that!" Sakura said quickly, slamming her fist on the counter.

Ino turned slowly to look at her, still braced against the wall. "Then you just have no self-control?" The fire drained from Sakura's eyes and she slumped back down, looking away.

Before…

"So you'll be back soon, right, honey?"

"_I don't know, baby… It's looking like the mission might run double time."_

Sakura whined, her throat vibrating against her choker communicator necklace.

"_Don't be so sad, baby girl,"_ Ino's voice came through the device, tone soothing, _"I'll be back before you know it! It just seems like it'll be a little longer, that's all."_

The pinked haired girl sighed, "I miss you."

"_I miss you, too."_ Sakura could hear the smile in her girlfriend's voice, which made her smile in turn. _"Do something fun, ok, sweetie? Order food and watch a movie, and just pretend I'm holding you on the couch."_

"Wish I could imagine you holding me on the bed," Sakura said suggestively, smirking.

"_Don't have too much fun without me!"_ Ino laughed before cutting off abruptly. _"…Sakura, I've gotta' go. I'll see you sooner than you think. Bye sweetie- love you!"_

"Love you." Sakura sighed, "Be safe."

And the call ended, leaving Sakura alone in their house. She spent a moment feeling sorry for herself before taking a deep breath. _'Ino is right-' _she decided, _'I shouldn't just be sitting around all upset! I'm going to order some food and have a nice evening!'_ Resolved, she grabbed her coat without a second thought, pulling it on over her tank-top as she headed out the door and out of the building.

It only took a couple of minuets for her to walk down the street and make it to the corner diner. She felt in the mood for a little udon and perhaps some dango. The idea of popping the chewy sweetness in her mouth as she watched television seemed excellent. Maybe chased by a touch of sweet Saki- it always improved bad B-movies, as far as Sakura was concerned.

She went in intended a quick in-and-out. Obtain food and leave- an easy mission. She'd wound up running into somebody she knew. Somebody she had thought was no big deal any more.

"Well, well, what vision has graced us with her presence?"

Sakura turned around, alarm relaxing as she saw it was nothing more than a childhood friend. "Oh, hey, Sasuke! How are you?" she asked with a smile.

He shrugged, sauntering forward. "Much better since you showed up. How are you, lovely? Where's your old lady?"

Sakura crossed her arms, leaning against a wall. So he was feeling playful for once? Well that wasn't a bad change. "My gorgeous girlfriend is on a mission for the next two weeks," she informed him, raising a brow "Where's yours?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Not here tonight. So it looks like it's just you and me- the neglected lovers."

They both chuckled to that.

She wouldn't know until later that Karin had dumped his cheating ass. She wouldn't notice until later the strong scent of alcohol surrounding him.

It was clear she wasn't thinking. Not when she decided to stay out and keep her friend company as she had her dinner. Not when he suggested that they dip the dango in booze. Not when they'd just started drinking from the bottle. Not when she'd let him walk her home.

And especially not when they'd staggered into her apartment, kissing drunkenly and dropping clothes as they stumbled back to the bedroom.

Little had Sakura known that Ino's "unexpectedly long mission" was a myth. A lie crafted by Ino to surprise her girlfriend with an early return home.

Ino had returned home to find her partner in bed with the scum they had both sworn never to even think about again.

The biggest betrayal of all.

Now…

"I thought you were in love with me," Ino addressed the wall again.

Sakura looked at her back, "I am!"

"Then what the Hell were you doing," she breathed, "with _him_?"

"I-I was… we-" Sakura scrabbled for something to say.

"I thought you'd given up on him!" Ino screamed, turning around, fists clenched and teeth clenched, "I gave up on him for you! Because I thought you loved me more."

Sakura leapt to her feet, "I _do_ love you more!"

Ino's fury did not dissipate, but seethed beneath her surface, voice dropping dangerously low. "Then why can't you show it?"

There was nothing Sakura knew to say. What could she possibly tell this woman? How could she keep her? How could she ever be sorry enough? What would they do now? She slowly began to open her mouth.

Ino beat her to the decision. "This is it, Sakura. I'm leaving. And I'm not coming back."

Flabbergasted, Sakura felt the blood drain from her face. "Ino, wait-!"

"No." Ino said, tone final. Her decision was made. It had been made the moment she'd arrived home to find the woman she loved pinned beneath the boy she'd given up on, rolling around in her bed in her own home. She blinked the furious hurt tears from her clear eyes. "We're through."

The blonde turned on her heel, ponytail swishing behind her with an unintentional flourish, heading for the door, which she wrenched open without a second look to Sakura.

"I'll send Shikamaru over for my stuff later," she said, pausing and staring at the floor for a moment before taking that final deep breath and closing the door.

"Ino! No!" Sakura screamed, tears streaming down her already makeup-streaked face. She was ignored, left alone and hated. She'd been an easy lay and she'd lost the person she loved because of it.

The final fight had ended. There were no winners.


End file.
